This is bad news for Apple’s Christmas sales which are traditionally its biggest money spinner.

But be rest assured fanboys it is not because the iPhone, with its limited reasons for purchase, is no longer fashionable, the Tame Apple Press tells us it is all because Apple can’t get enough parts.  

Chief Executive Tim Cook warned in October that the impact of supply chain challenges would be worse during the holiday sales quarter than it was in the previous quarter.

In October, for the first time in more than a decade, iPhone and iPad assembly was halted for several days due to supply chain constraints and restrictions on the use of power in China, Nikkei reported.

Through September and October, the reallocation of the shared components squeezed iPad assembly even more, leading to about half the production volume than planned, while the production forecast for older generations of iPhones also dropped around 25 per cent, Nikkei added.